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Diet an Lifestyle, Tip2: The biggest enemy, Refined Carbohydrates

Example of refined carbs, image is courtesy of Julie70's photostream on Flickr

To quote Roy Martina, “refined” means: we take the best part of that food and give it to the pigs, then we eat the rest :)Normally we eat white bread, white pasta, white rice, white sugar etc.When we eat refined carbohydrates, the food is quickly broken down and transformed in glucose, or sugar.Then we get high sugars in the blood and the pancreas have to react to it producing insulin.The more we eat refined carbs the more the pancreas get stressed and tired for this day by day extra work with the result the insuline the pancreas will be producing will not be the quality or the quantity it should be.With a poor tired pancreas, we get what is called insulin resistance and our body will immediately turn the sugars into fats.IMPORTANT: this is not only for sugar, this is for all refined carbohydrates, so remember you are stressing your pancreas with refined carbohydrates.Carbohydrates need to come together with fibers, as mother nature bring it to us. Fibers are needed to slow down the absorption of carbs in the blood.So “stay raw” as much as you can, the best diet come with unprocessed food.Raw means whole, or not refined, for example whole bread, whole rice, whole pasta etc. but also means, when possible, not cooked as well, or at least less cooked. There always are exceptions to this, for example, regarding the whole food an exeption are people affected by coeliac disease and, concerning the cooking, there could be some bad hygienic situations in which cooking is better than raw. But, in all the other cases, the lesser cooked and refined, the better. Every time we cook the food we are denaturating it in some way.This is a very simple rule of thumb we can take, eating more salads and fruit when we have no other choices, for example at the restaurant. Statistics say: from people making diets, the ones who eat things from nature are the one in the best condition. If we would put the 50% of food we eat in the raw diet section it would already be a big step forward, just keep it in mind, in the background of your lifestyle.From the energy point of view, when we do not have enough fibers, the toxins go into the blood and we feel more fatigue, lack of energy etc. Fibers are either more important and not just for that, they drag the toxins out of the colon, and in this way toxins “gets out of us”. Fibers are good for the quality of the stools. Observing the stools, it should be rich in fibers, a bit like horses, LOL :), solid, but not “too elastic and lucid”. Looking at your stools tells you about the quality of your diet, please remember it every time you sit on that … “chair” :)We want to have a fiber rich diet, the more fibers the better.So refined carbohydrates are the worst enemy, and from this group, sugar is the very number one enemy, because sugar make always the body acid, and an acid environment invites the bacteria to come. Furthermore, it is bad for your joints, and for the circulation. Vegetables and fruits give instead an alkaline environment.We want to eliminate sugar as much as possible and remember, everything is quality and quantity, for example, the honey or the whole sugar are better than white sugar, but if you take it in great quantity it is bad as well.Unfortunately, nowadays, sugar is almost anywhere, so you need to be careful about what you are eating. To make an example sodas are a very big source of sugar, stay away from it. (drinks will be covered in another tip section, for now keep in mind that water is always the best choice)Hope you are finding it interesting, please do not hesitate to contribute with some feedback if you like, and if you wanna dig more, here is another pointer on this topic, from Scott Sonnon, worldwide known as the flow coach: Can You Get Sober (from Sugar)? Take care 😉

Dear Giulia, thanks for the feedback ;)Here some habits I find useful:Substitute sweeties with some nuts or seeds, dried fruit or fresh fruit, also muesli is good but be sure it is organic, natural and with no glucose or sugars added. I love to purchase many different nuts and dried fruit and making mixes, be sure the dried fruit is without added white sugar or glucose syrups as well.Do not eat a lot of nuts mixes, just take some bits as a snack with some dried or fresh fruit to block the needs of sugar and taste when it comes.Soy yogurt or soy milk shakes with fresh fruit can be another choice, I love them 🙂 Completely avoid soda drinks, in one soda can you can find as much as 10 coffee spoons of white sugar!Replace sodas with herbal tea, for example during the day you can drink green tea and at evening/night some herbal tisane (for example for relaxation, digestion, draining etc.)Green tea is great for blocking the need to eat and it is a good source of antioxidants, very good for countering the aging process and for detoxify the body from free radicals.When it comes to choose herbal teas or tisanes, always search for the one with whole leaf, I mean, not pulverized, therefore avoid the one in paper bags, often, the more you can see, the better the quality.Dedicating to the green tea culture and preparation, is also a kind of "meditative practice", to make a good tea it needs to be done in a "state of presence", giving attention in what you are doing and can be a good habit, it can help overcoming other addictions as well, like for example for replace smoking or alcoholic social drinking. Personally I love green tea and there are a lot of qualities you can experience the wonderful taste, knowing teas is like for wines, there is a big universe of flavor to explore. In the next diet blog tips there will be one dedicated to the green teas, that is one of my passion :)If theine is a problem, you can get rid of it doing the first 30 seconds infusion and dropping that tea, than the theine should be gone and you can make another or many other infusions. (theine go away faster but all the other good things like antioxidants etc. will last very longer for many other infusions)Eliminate white sugar, for example in the green tea or herbals it can totally change the flavor, and culturally speaking, putting sugar in the tea is also some kind of "weird" stuff. Use honey or raw sugar if you can’t avoid it.Specially in the beginning take your free day for "transgression". Make it one for every week or less, but on the other days be straight and honest with yourself. Every time you reach a goal, take some time to be happy and to reward yourself for that 🙂 For example a goal schedule could be reaching one week, and doing it four times for a month. After a while, normally around 20 days, you will be surprised because it will be very easy, it will be your new habit, like when you start a flyweel in the beginning is difficult but after a while it will keep a certain momentum and you will do it without or with very less effort.Another suggestion: very often, the drive to eat sugars is coming from our psyche, so practicing some internal art like for example Zen Meditation, Yoga or Tai Chi Chuan can help a lot on this level too.Hope this could helpFabio